>From the “Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships,”
(1963) Vol. 2, pp.424-425.
FLYING FISH
SS-229
Displacement: 1,526 t.
Length: 311’8”
Beam: 27’4”
Draft: 15’3”
Speed: 20 k.
Complement: 60
Armament: 1 3”; 10 21” torpedo tubes
Class: GATO
The second FLYING FISH (SS-229) was launched 9 July
1941 by Portsmouth Navy Yard; sponsored by Mrs. Husband E.
Kimmel, wife of the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet; and
commissioned 10 December 1941, Lieutenant Commander Glynn R.
Donaho in command. She was reclassified AGSS-229 on 29
November 1950.
FLYING FISH arrived at Pearl Harbor for final training
2 May 1942, and 15 days later was ordered out to patrol west
of Midway, threatened by an expected Japanese attack.
During the Battle of Midway 4 to 6 June, she and her sisters
fanned out to scout and screen the island, at which she
refitted from 9 to 11 June. Continuing her first full war
patrol, she searched major shipping lanes in empire waters
and scored a hit on a Japanese destroyer off Taiwan during
the night of 3 July. She returned to Midway to refit on 25
July and on 15 August she sailed on her second war patrol,
bound for a station north of Truk.
On 28 August 1942, 3 days after arriving on station,
FLYING FISH sighted the masts of a Japanese battleship,
guarded by two destroyers and air cover. Four torpedoes
were launched at this prime target, and two hits were picked
up by sound. Immediately the counterattack began, and as
FLYING FISH prepared to launch torpedoes at one of the
destroyers, rapidly closing to starboard, her commanding
officer was blinded by a geyser of water thrown up by a
bomb. FLYING FISH went deep for cover. A barrage of 36
depth charges followed. When FLYING FISH daringly came up
to periscope depth 2 hours later, she found the two
destroyers still searching aided by two harbor submarine
chasers and five aircraft. A great cloud of black smoke
hung over the scene, persisting through the remaining hours
of daylight. As FLYING FISH upped periscope again a little
later, a float plane dropped bombs directly astern, and the
alert destroyers closed in. A salvo of torpedoes at one of
the destroyers missed, and FLYING FISH went deep again to
endure another depth charging. Surfacing after dark, she
once more attracted the enemy through excessive smoke from
one of her engines, and again she was forced down by depth
charges. Early in the morning of 29 August, she at last
cleared the area to surface and charge her batteries.
Unshaken by this long day of attack, she closed Truk
once more 2 September 1942, and attacked a 400-ton patrol
vessel, only to see her torpedoes fail to explode upon
hitting the target. The patrol ship ran down the torpedo
tracks and began a depth charge attack, the second salvo of
which damaged FLYING FISH considerably. A second patrol
ship came out to join the search as FLYING FISH successfully
evaded both and cleared the area. Determinedly, she
returned to the scene late the next night, and finding a
single patrol vessel, sank her with two torpedoes just after
midnight early on 4 September. Two hours later, a second
patrol craft came out, and as FLYING FISH launched a stern
shot, opened fire, then swerved to avoid the torpedo.
FLYING FISH dived for safety, enduring seven depth charge
runs by the patrol vessel before it was joined by two
destroyers who kept the submarine under attack for 5 hours.
At last able to haul off, FLYING FISH sailed for Pearl
Harbor to repair damage between 15 September and 27 October.
During her third war patrol, south of the Marshall
Islands, FLYING FISH three times launched bold attacks on
Japanese task forces, only to suffer the frustration of poor
torpedo performance, or to score hits causing damage which
postwar evaluation could not confirm. She arrived at
Brisbane for refit on 16 December 1942 and on 6 January
1943, started her fourth war patrol, a reconnaissance of the
Marianas. Along with gaining much valuable intelligence,
she damaged a freighter in Apra Harbor 26 January, hit a
passenger-cargo ship in Tinian's Sunharon Roadstead 6
February, and sank another freighter in the presence of
patrolling aircraft and surface escorts 16 February.
Again returning to Pearl Harbor to replenish between 28
February and 24 March, FLYING FISH made her fifth war patrol
on the coast of Honshu, battered by foul weather. On 12
April, she closed the northern coast to make a daring attack
on a freighter, which she sank, again in the presence of
scout planes and armed trawlers. Moving south to Hokkaido,
FLYING FISH damaged a large freighter on the 13th, and on
the 15th torpedoed an inter-island cargo ship who beached in
a mass of flames. Two days later, continuing her bold
inshore attacks, FLYING FISH sank another freighter, and in
the Tsugara Strait on 24 April, sent yet another cargo ship
to the bottom. On 1 May, a small inter-island freighter was
sunk, but an alert enemy antisubmarine group shook FLYING
FISH considerably before she could clear the area. She
returned to Midway from this highly successful patrol 11
May.
After five grueling patrols, Lieutenant Commander
Donaho turned the command over to Captain Frank T. Watkins
for the 6th patrol from 2 June to 27 July 1943. FLYING FISH
patrolled in the Volcano Islands and off Taiwan. Her first
attacks, two against the same convoy, resulted in
unconfirmed damage, but off Taiwan on 2 July, she blasted
the stern off a cargo ship, watching it sink. While Pearl
Harbor-bound from her patrol area, she made a 2-day chase
for a fast convoy but was forced by her dwindling fuel
supply to break off the hunt. On 11 July, she destroyed a
125-foot sailing vessel with gunfire, leaving it aflame from
stem to stern.
After a major overhaul at Pearl Harbor from 27 July to
4 October 1943, FLYING FISH sailed on her seventh war
patrol, again with her original skipper, bound for the
Palaus. Her first attack, on 18 October, scored at least
one hit on an auxiliary aircraft carrier. A 2-day tracking
of a well-escorted convoy from 26 to 28 October resulted in
the sinking of one, and the damaging of two merchantmen
before FLYING FISH ran out of torpedoes. She arrived at
Midway 6 November.
FLYING FISH's eighth war patrol, the first to be
commanded by Lieutenant Commander R. D. Risser, between
Taiwan and the China coast from 30 November 1943 to 28
January 1944, found her sinking a cargo ship on 16 December,
and a tanker on 27 December. Her refit and retraining
between patrols were held once more at Pearl Harbor, and she
sailed for her ninth war patrol 22 February. Off Iwo Jima
on 12 March, she sent a merchantman to the bottom, then
sailed to close Okinawa and attack a convoy in the early
morning darkness of 16 March. A passenger-cargo ship was
sunk and a tanker damaged in this attack. Pressing on with
her chase for 6 hours in the hope of finishing off the
tanker, FLYING FISH was detected and held down by aircraft
and destroyers while the tanker escaped. On the afternoon
of 31 March, FLYING FISH was attacked by a Japanese
submarine, whose torpedoes she skillfully evaded. Bound for
Majuro at the close of her patrol, the submarine torpedoed
and sank a freighter moored at Kita Daito Jima.
Refitting at Majuro between 11 April and 4 May, FLYING
FISH then sailed for her tenth war patrol coordinated with
the assault on the Marianas scheduled to open the next
month. First she covered shipping lanes between Ulithi,
Yap, and Palau, coming under severe attack on the night of
24-25 May when she was detected while attacking a four-ship
convoy. At dawn, however, she had got back into position to
sink two of the ships, both passenger-cargo types. Now with
other submarines she headed to take up a patrol station
between the Palaus and San Bernardino Straits, from which
she could scout any movement by the enemy fleet out of its
base at Tawi in the Sulus while the marines were landed on
Saipan. On 15 June, day of the invasion, FLYING FISH
spotted the Japanese carrier force emerging from San
Bernardino Strait bound westward. Her prompt report of this
movement enabled a sister submarine to sink the carrier
SHOKAKU 4 days later as American carrier aircraft broke the
back of Japanese naval aviation in the Battle of the
Philippine Sea. FLYING FISH remained on her scouting
station until 23 June, then sailed for Manus and Brisbane.
Here she refitted between 5 July and 1 August.
During her 11th war patrol, off Davao Gulf, the coast
of Celebes, and along the shipping lanes from the
Philippines to Halmahera, FLYING FISH was held down much of
the time by enemy aircraft. After refueling at Mios Woendi,
29 August to 1 September, she closed Celebes, where on 7
September she detected a concealed enemy airstrip. Her
report led to the airfield's bombardment by aircraft 11 days
later. Through the remainder of her patrol, she served on
lifeguard duty for air strikes on Celebes, returning to
Midway 18 October. She sailed on for an extensive overhaul
at San Francisco, where she was equipped with mine detection
and clearance equipment to enable her to penetrate the Sea
of Japan.
Tests with her new gear preceded her return to Guam 18
May 1945, where she joined a submarine task group for her
12th war patrol. She sailed 29 May for the heavily mined
Tsushima Strait, entering the Sea of Japan 7 June. Now each
submarine headed for her own assigned area, FLYING FISH
setting course north for the coast of Korea. On 10 June, in
separate attacks, she sank two cargo ships, taking aboard
one survivor. Five days later, she sank l0 small craft with
gunfire and sent two onto the beach. Completing her patrol
at Pearl Harbor 4 July, FLYING FISH returned to New London
21 September to become flagship of Commander, Submarine
Force, Atlantic Fleet.
During the next 8 years, from her base at New London,
the veteran FLYING FISH conducted reserve training cruises
in Long Island and Block Island Sound, exercised off the
Virginia Capes, trained men of foreign navies, joined in
major operations in the Caribbean, and cruised to Canadian
ports. On 11 January 1951, she completed her duty as
flagship, and began to serve the Underwater Sound Laboratory
in sonar experiments. On 29 February 1952, at 1053, FLYING
FISH made submarine history as she dived for the 5,000th
time, first American submarine to reach such a record. On
board for the event was a distinguished party headed by
Secretary of the Navy D. A. Kimball. Placed in commission
in reserve 31 December 1953, FLYING FISH was decommissioned
at New London 28 May 1954 and was sold for scrapping 1 May
1959.
Of FLYING FISH's 12 war patrols, all save the 11th were
designated "Successful." She is credited with having sunk a
total of 58,306 tons of enemy shipping. She received 12
battle stars for World War II service.
Transcribed by Michael Hansen
mhansen2@home.com